The Fossil Record of Mythical Beasts?

Imagine the world without any knowledge of the planet’s ancient past or the idea that extinct species once roamed the world. Now, imagine you came across the fossilized remains of a dinosaur or other ancient creature, what would you make of them?

Up until the beginning of the 1800’s, the idea that species could go extinct was unheard of. The French naturalist and zoologist Georges Cuvier first proposed the idea of extinction in 1796, and the idea really didn’t catch on. Indeed during that time, it was widely believed in western science that, following the biblical creation myth, God had created a perfect world, and thus the idea that species could go extinct or evolve impossible. So, what how did people explain away their fossil discoveries?

Since ancient times, across the world, people had been making fossil discoveries, and the ways that they interpreted varied widely from tokens of good luck to the origin stories of ancient mythology’s most fantastical beasts.

To introduce us to just a few of these marvelous fossil myths, we turn to one of our favorite YouTube Channels, The Brains Scoop.

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The most important scientific discoveries almost always contain the key elements of a great story: drama, serendipity, hardship and perseverance. Here’s a fabulous tale of the WOMAN who discovered dinosaurs!

Fossilized dinosaur dung is one really precious gem! From these wonders (really, they are quite beautiful) we can understand the lives of animals that died millions of years ago and the details of their ecosystems. Not to mention, these fossils played a role in the life of one of the most notable women in paleontology!

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